Obama to propose new unemployment insurance plan in budget

[flowers]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/obama-to-propose-new-unemployment-insurance-plan-in-budget/2016/01/16/6e84caae-bc5e-11e5-b682-4bb4dd403c7d_story.html

President Obama will include a new wage insurance scheme in his budget next month that would provide supplemental payments to workers who lose their jobs and end up taking new ones at lower salaries.

The wage insurance payments could temporarily cushion the financial blow to displaced middle-class workers, including those hurt by free trade, globalization and technological change.

The president’s budget proposal will also include other new protections for others who lose their jobs and training plans to help them get back to work quickly.

The White House said Saturday that the wage insurance plan would replace half of a worker’s lost wages, up to $10,000 over two years, for those earning up to $50,000 a year.

“Displaced workers making less than $50,000 who were with their prior employer for at least three years would be able to leverage these resources to help them get back on their feet and on the way to” new careers, the White House said in a statement.

The proposal will likely face an uphill battle in the Republican Congress.

In his State of the Union address, Obama made the case for wage insurance. He said: “Say a hard-working American loses his job — we shouldn’t just make sure that he can get unemployment insurance; we should make sure that program encourages him to retrain for a business that’s ready to hire him. If that new job doesn’t pay as much, there should be a system of wage insurance in place so that he can still pay his bills.”

Many economists have backed wage insurance as a way to address falling incomes among the middle class and as a way to keep people from leaving the labor force. Gary Burtless, an economist at the Brookings Institution, has written that if designed properly, wage insurance would provide an incentive for people laid off to find jobs as soon as possible because the supplemental payments would not start until a new job was found and would only last for two years after the initial job loss.

Wage insurance has also been proposed as a way to ease concerns about free trade and the disruptive effects of technological chan

[EC]

Leaving aside the pros and cons of the actual idea (I have zero clue, TBH):

Gary Burtless, an economist at the Brookings Institution, has written that if designed properly

What are the chances of that? Slightly above zero?

[HonestJohn]

He can propose all he wants.  Whether it will be in next year's budget is another story.

[Scottftlc]

Given how much the Democrats got of their wish list last year in the omnibus budget...all of it...I wouldn't count on them not getting what they want from Ryan and McConnell this year.

[Right_in_Virginia]

He can propose all he wants.  Whether it will be in next year's budget is another story.

He's proposing campaign issues.

[HonestJohn]

He's proposing campaign issues.

Yep.  That's why I doubt they'll get into the budget. 

With it being an election year, Republicans have reason not to put the idea into budget planning for next year.